Current Section

Edmonton Hosts Worlds

12/06/2019, 3:30pm PST

By Football Canada

The 2024 IFAF World Junior Football Championship

Football Canada is proud to announce in conjunction with Football Alberta that Edmonton will host the World Junior U20 World Championships in July 2024. After winning the right to host the 2024 World U20 Championships from the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) in 2018, Football Canada opened up the bid process with inquiries from five provincial organizations.

"With Edmonton's tradition of embracing global competitions, we anticipate that this tournament will elevate the profile of international football," Football Canada president Jim Mullin said.

"We have conducted the most thorough bid process in the history of this event, Football Alberta has paid attention to all of the details and will be a fantastic host," Mullin said.

IFAF president Richard McLean expressed the organization's optimism surrounding the host city and country.

"Edmonton is a great football city and IFAF recognizes that Football Canada is a reliable and quality global host. They will do an amazing job hosting the event," McLean said.

The #WJFC2024 will incorporate teams from the Asian, Oceania, European and Americas regions. It has yet to be determined if the tournament will be a six-nation or eight-nation event.

For their part, Football Alberta's Executive Director says that Alberta is ready to step up on the world stage.

"We're proud of all of our communities in the province but know that there is something special about the Metro Edmonton region when it comes to hosting international events. We know it will be a winner when the world comes to the heartland of football in Canada," Enger said.

Canada is the international leader at the World Juniors. Team Canada won the last two championships becoming the only back-to-back champion in the history of the event. In 2016 in China, Canada scored an upset over the United States. In 2018 in front of 32,515 at Mexico City's Estadio Olympico Team Canada score a 13-7 victory against host Mexico. Canada is the only team to play in the gold medal final in all five championships and have won the most gold medals with three. Canada's first win was in 2012 with a 23-17 win over the United States in Canton, Ohio.

The 2020 Championship will be hosted by USA Football in the Pro Football Hall of Fame city of Canton, Ohio in July. It will be the last of World Juniors played under the Under-19 age grouping.

With the WJFC moving to a quadrennial tournament, Football Canada is in the process of exploring options for hosting a 2022 tournament.

"We would like for our athletes at our high-performance level to experience global competition. Football Canada is looking at different models which would give our players and supporters an opportunity to see global football on a Canadian field," Mullin said.